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Wednesday, April 06, 2011

I was excited about watching the new Duncan Jones film, Source Code. I absolutely loved his earlier film Moon (see the review-post here), which was a brainy, low-budget, sci-fi movie. It is hard to talk about Source Code without giving away some key elements of the story. So I will leave the movie to discover it for yourself. All I can tell you is that the movie deals with issues of consciousness, personalities, free-will - and some ham-handed physics thrown-in for plot-purposes. The science is completely preposterous. However, once you buy the basic premise, the movie is quite interesting/entertaining - until the last 15 minutes. My problem with the last 15 minutes is that it starts violating the rules the movie had set for it self - and as a result, I don't I have much to say about issues related to science & religion. You can watch the preview of the film here:

Source Code is made with a much bigger budget than Moon. I'm curious if the studios had a hand in shaping the overall story, especially towards the end. Even the characters are not that well developed. C'mon Duncan. You can do better than this! The movie is not a disaster - but I think my expectations were definitely high. Hope his next film goes back to the roots of good story telling.

I also had a chance to see Paul earlier this afternoon. It is by the same duo (Simon Pegg and Nick Frost) who also did the absolutely fantastic Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. Paul is about two British nerds who encounter an alien while visiting the American southwest. Yes, it has much of the nerd-references to the famous sci-fi films - but successfully avoided overdoing it (it is more of a loving take on science-fiction). Of relevance to this blog is that the movie explicitly deals with the interaction of science & religion. In addition to a hilarious sequence about evolution, the movie throughout takes an unapologetic stance for science. I was waiting for the movie to enter some squisshy-land where miracles and science can live side-by-side - but nope, it did not happen. Good for them! There are enough movies out there on miracles and on religion. We need more Pauls!

In any case, check out Paul. It is funny and smart - though not as good as their zombie take in Shaun of the Dead. Seriously, if you haven't seen Shaun of the Dead - you should give it a chance.

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comments:

I think there is no question that Wickramasinghe and Hoyle have been treated unfairly in the academic circles. They should be taken more seriously than they are. At the same time, I think their claims of alien life forms, while always interesting, have never really stood up to further tests. For example, the E.Coli signature in GC-IRS7 was really intriguing. However, as far as I remember, it faltered at wavelengths farther in the infrared. In graduate school, we once had a seminar in which we looked at the works of very smart "outcasts" of astronomy, such as Hoyle, Arp, Wickramasinghe, etc. We looked at this particular paper and this is what I remember from it.

I would love Wickramasinghe's claims of alien lifeforms to be correct! It would be so cool! But so far, the evidence is still wanting.

Will look into the paper a bit more, and write again if something else jumps out of it.

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What is Irtiqa?

Irtiqa is Salman Hameed's blog. A few years ago (before Facebook killed many of the blogs), it used to track stories of science & religion, especially those related to Muslim societies. That is still one of its foci, but now it dovetails more of Salman's interests including film, astronomy, science fiction, and science outreach in both Pakistan and the US.

Irtiqa literally means evolution in Urdu. But it does not imply only biological evolution. Instead, it is an all encompassing word used for evolution of the universe, biological evolution, and also for biological/human development. While it has created confusion in debates over biological evolution in South Asia, it provides a nice integrative name for this blog. For further information, contact Salman Hameed.

The blog banner is designed by Muhammad Aurangzeb Ahmad. You can find all his creative endeavors at Orangie.

Salman Hameed

Salman is an astronomer and Associate Professor of Integrated Science & Humanities at Hampshire College, Massachusetts. Currently, he is working on understanding the rise of creationism in contemporary Islamic world and how Muslims view the relationship between science & religion. He is also working with historian Tracy Leavelle at Creighton University to analyze reconciliation efforts between astronomers and Native Hawaiians over telescopes on top of sacred Mauna Kea in Hawaii. He teaches “History and Philosophy of Science & Religion” with philosopher Laura Sizer, and “Science in the Islamic World”, both at Hampshire College. Salman and Laura Sizer are also responsible for the ongoing Hampshire College Lecture Series on Science & Religion, and you can find videos of all these lectures below. Contact information here.